Friday, 23 September 2016

The Long Awaited Road Trip | Episode 1

Saturday,
13th August 2016

There
is this certain fascination with the whole idea of a road trip. The thought of a never-ending
road, uniting this beautiful world one habitation at a time, in a diverse panorama
is bound to capture everyone’s attention. Not that we get its idea from the fact of rigorous
unintentional promotion by conventional medias in the form of movies and documentaries.

One
of such a road-trip dreamer is myself. I've picked up numerous hobbies in my life so far, some of which only lasted for short periods due to my own dissatisfaction. In such cases, I had always felt that there was something missing or out of
place even thought I didn't know what it was. I was seeking for, I suppose, this
thirst for contentment. And this
search for fulfilment led me to photography (challenge accepted!!) which, I've come to realise, I've been thoroughly following and content with. Then came travelling!
For me, photography and travelling are like 2 sides of a coin. Never in my dream
have I ever thought I would be passionate about something until I started
seeing this beautiful world both, through my eyes and my lens. I am now always seeking opportunities to hone
my skills and travelling has kept me moving in my endeavour.Wow! That went deeper than I expected. Anyway, the main point is I love my camera and
travelling, be it by plane, foot or any form of vehicle, and a road-trip had always been on my bucket list.

So, I
proposed a mini one to my friends and after their agreement and meticulous
planning, I now share here the best times of our lives, or shall we say
adventures. Why adventure? Well… firstly, my confidence level on right-hand
driving was low to none, and to make matters… lets say exciting, we hired a manual
car. Secondly, I was the only driver and
lastly but most important of all, the line up for our road trip (4 people with 4 interesting personalities). Spending 24 hours a day with this lot for 10 days in
foreign countries was pretty fun.

Day
1 Munich: Since time was of essence, I booked an early flight to Munich, which we
(one of our compadre) nearly missed on due to unforeseen circumstances (phone
dead/no alarm on our compadre). Perhaps, a morning flight was not a good
idea. After we picked Manish, we rushed
towards Gatwick. Tensions were rising as our flight time was approaching and we
encountered some minor road works, which intensified the cold atmosphere. I was
in no condition to chitchat, neither was Sumit and Manish, however, Anup started
cracking up some lame jokes which I suppose lightened the mood. Bravo to you my
friend, Anup.

As
soon as we reached Gatwick, I rushed to check my bags in and dashed towards our
gate. Phew! We made it on time, although Manish had to pay £45 for his over
sized bag, which was a bummer for him.

Also, I would like to give my gratitude to Sumit; if it weren't for him we'd end up in some random taxi, probably get there late and would've missed our flight. hahaha.
Thank you Sumit.

So, the plan
was to get our booked car, visit Munich Town centre, spend a couple of hours there and drive
towards Austria where we would rest for the night. And without any knowledge of
Munich, we just followed our Satnav and drove. Personally, I like Munich, for
me cities with architecture and history has always been fascinating and of course
there is great food and beer. Now, I have come to the conclusion that I just love
travelling, be it city or countryside.

After
an hour, we were in Munich which seemed a bit posh, filled with branded stores and
sports cars (we were highly likely in the luxurious part of town). For an hour we aimlessly
walked around and scouted some restaurants for lunch. As for me, I am happy with
delicious food regardless of venue or standards. My friends on the other
hand, Jesus, their requirements: no street food, good restaurant, delicious food
and of course somewhere that gave 1 litre beers.So, we
settled on a good looking restaurant which they regretted, as they did not
sell beer by the litre. Food was good; I had sausages and Wagyu burger (nom…nom…nom) that Sumit was not fond of.

After
the hearty lunch we started our journey towards Werfen, Austria but before that we detoured to Berchtesgaden. Best decision ever!The impact of this picturesque (as I would
like to pronounce picture-skeee) landscape was numbingly immense. Definitely coming here again!! Probably alone though.

Konigssee Lake

Finally got their 1ltr beer although, 1ltr of Radler was not to Manish's liking. As for me, I was stuck with fanta since you know...designated driver O_O!

Day 2 Werfen, Austria: Second day of
our road-trip, everything’s going according to my awesome plan.
However, I have to mention, driving from Berchtesgaden to Werfen was not easy,
especially in pitch dark, severely uphill/downhill country road. Did I stall my
car? Yes. Was I scared of darkness outside? Yes. Was I confused on which lane to drive on?
Undoubtedly. Was it adventurous? F**k yes. Regardless of my feelings, I drove
safely, which I am proud of. So thumbs up for that.

All in all, it was well worth it. Wouldn't you like to wake up to this magnificent vista of mountains under those beautiful azure sky?

Seriously! every time I whip out my camera, they are always ready for photos uninvited.
Ruining my money shot. Anyway, this was taken in front of hotel Weissess Rossl
Werfen, where we stayed; surrounded by picturesque mountains and river.

Let
me have this opportunity to properly introduce my travel companions (misfits) in this
photo.From left Sumit aka Psycho (per
to his history which he defends adamantly), Manish aka Crazy (always been! I
was just slow to notice), Anup aka gorey aka Pussy (Abundantly filled with negativeness, always thinks worse than it actually is) and of course yours truly, me, aka Damber; lets just say only normal one in this bunch. :)

Eisriesenwelt,
world's largest ice cave, natural fridge I might add.

This
world never ceases to surprise us with its remarkable creation.

This
is also where my friend’s Anup legend started. Of course I am exaggerating a bit
but he did something out of his personality that shocked all of us.

When
the plan was to visit the ice cave where you require hiking, what would any
ordinary person do? Let me just emphasize ICE CAVE again. Of course, prepare to hike with warm clothes.
However, my good friend Anup decided to wear his sandals and when we insisted
him on wearing shoes? He answered, “These are trekking sandals bro. Any terrain would be fine with these.”We even saw people changing into proper gear for the Ice Cave but that
didn’t influence him either.

So,
we hiked, used a cable car and then we reached the cave. There is a door at the
entrance of the cave! A freaking door! Hodor! Every time the door opens, the gust of
freezing air charges from it, which put Anup in great predicament. Finally, he
regretted his choice of footwear but there was no turning back.He hesitantly asked the tour guide if his
shoes were adequate for cave, to which the guide replied, people had done the
tour with those sorts of footwear.I
think that eased his mind but the joke's about frostbite, cutting his
toes and people staring at his foot and laughing were not helping.

Decision
time for him, either he waits outside for an hour until the tour finishes or comes in with us with his trekking sandals
and that’s where the Legend was born. He decided to go in and even came out with
his toes perfectly fine. Bravo to him. It was a good laugh.

En route to Grossglockner High Alpine Road/Austrian Apls

One
word “Amazing!”. Relaxing yet thrilling to be driving on this spectacular road
enjoying mountains vista. As we passed several bikers, it just ignited the flame
inside me for riding a motorbike. This place would be perfect to explore with motorbike. Just imagine feeling the fresh breeze of air, enjoying the majestic
view of the mountains turning one hairpin road a time, elevating towards the peak unfolding
different panoramas.

Simply the best...but I was in a car this time and struggling a bit with my manual gear. Let's just say, I could not afford a mistake on those mountainous roads. One mistake and...bye...bye...world. O_O

Epic
pose for epic landscape 1 (Ready to rumble)

Epic
pose for epic landscape 2 (Boys are back in town)

Epic
pose for epic landscape 3 (Back to school)

Day
3, en route to Lake Garda, Italy.

Berggasthof Wallackhaus, hotel we stayed in, which is located between the High Alpine roads.

Something
funny occurred here, or maybe slightly dangerous I suppose. It was during the evening after we
checked-in, we decided to explore. We were chilling on a small hill in front of our hotel, laughing, giggling, some photo shooting and drinking while admiring the
pleasing views of Austria. Suddenly, we heard a lightning and my
hair (regardless of the quantity) was lifting a bit or rather bounced. I turned to the others and I was not alone on this occurrence. All of us, except Sumit (he was wearing hat), felt this. So, we sprinted towards our hotel.

When
we were on the parking lot, we encountered a guy who did not speak a word of
English but saw the whole thing and with all his hands flying around tried to
explain what had happened.We were a bit
unsure but with his level of shock on his face and gestures, we could say, we nearly got
struck by lightning.The rage of Zeus nearly
got to us. Thank heavens for this lucky escape.

This is where stranger tried to explain that we nearly got struck by lightning. Calls for a group photo.

Episode-2 will be up next week...or week after where we visit Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland. ^_^